Jessica Ellicott •
Murder in an English Village •

The placid village of Walmsley Parva gets a jolt of adrenaline when American adventuress Beryl Helliwell zooms up in her “dazzling red motorcar” . . . and crashes straight into a pillar at the end of Edwina Davenport’s drive. “I thought you had a faultless sense of direction,” complains Edwina. “You managed to find your way to Nepal.” To which Beryl replies, “I found Nepal but I had been looking for Burma.”

Edwina has fallen on hard times since the Great War, but Beryl soon remedies that by paying her friend’s overdue bills, re-engaging her maid and gardener, and informing the local postmistress that the two of them are spies for His Majesty King George V. “Beryl was certain she actually saw Prudence’s ears wiggle at the notion of such gossip.”

As it turns out, there really is something to investigate. One former Land Girl has gone missing, and another is found dead in a recently manured field. Soon Edwina and Beryl are using their diverse skills to extract confidences from the population of Walmsley Parva, with Crumpet the terrier wagging along behind.

Their roster of suspects is delightfully eccentric: A teashop owner whose pastries owe much to black-market butter and eggs. A brother-and-sister team of garage mechanics. A war veteran whose disfigurement is concealed behind a tin mask painted to resemble Douglas Fairbanks Jr. A female constable who doesn’t care to look too closely into disappearances. The founder of a cinema club where no pretty young girl is safe from his groping hands.

Beryl and Edwina add new dimensions to their friendship while uncovering the past and unraveling the mystery. And along the way Edwina discovers, much to her astonishment, the one thing that has the power to terrify intrepid Beryl.